Monday April 27, Tharsis

Soulblighter has done the unthinkable. With his army scattered in disarray, he fled up through the Eye of Tharsis and into the very bowels of the earth. I can hardly blame him. The sight of Alric hacking his way through the enemy, Balmung flashing in his hand, caused many of our own men to stand aside in awe.

If it were anyone other than Soulblighter, I am sure we would just wait outside the volcano until they had been roasted alive or had succumbed to the poisonous vapors. Unfortunately, he has survived worse, and we must follow him.

None of us are foolish enough to believe that Soulblighter fled because he fears us. If he plans on dying it will not be quietly or alone.

Alric believes he has deliberately chosen this place for his final stand. Whether or not he will be able to escape the cataclysm he plans to unleash by destroying Tharsis and shattering the Cloudspine must not matter to him anymore.

Soulblighter, like Balor before him, seeks not to conquer but to destroy; to be master of the unthinking dead and their blasted lands.

So Alric is gathering all who are fit to enter Tharsis. The walking wounded and those weakened by fighting will not be idle, either. They will see to it that what is left of Soulblighter's army is returned to the earth.

And so I hurriedly record my last thoughts before entering Tharsis and leave my journal in the care of our surgeon, knowing that I may not return - and that it may not even matter.

Either we kill Soulblighter and his minions here, or we die - and the world with us.